


the crux of my old problem

by fleetwood_mouse



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-06 06:53:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18845899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleetwood_mouse/pseuds/fleetwood_mouse
Summary: I've been struggling to write anything worth finishing so, as an exercise, I took a look at an old story to see if it would shake anything loose. The other night, I ended up performing this (in public—imagine!) and so I thought I'd post it, as an alternate (less happy) ending. Feedback always appreciated.





	the crux of my old problem

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Shame On You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6295648) by [fleetwood_mouse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleetwood_mouse/pseuds/fleetwood_mouse). 



> I've been struggling to write anything worth finishing so, as an exercise, I took a look at an old story to see if it would shake anything loose. The other night, I ended up performing this (in public—imagine!) and so I thought I'd post it, as an alternate (less happy) ending. Feedback always appreciated.

the subtlety of your familiar hands  
the pale grace and fine bones of your wrist  
the neutral middle distance in your eyes  
the firelight still crackling in mine

it dawns on me:  
i should have seen this coming

the icy shock, my deepest self laid bare  
felled, flailing, strings cut and you aloof  
flayed by the lack of color in your eyes  
more vivid than the distance now between us

the crux of my old problem, still unchanged  
i am not like any other man  
well— neither, it seems, are you  
i see your face everywhere, still,  
i seek your face everywhere  
i cede my fate

there at the cradle of two great rivers  
oasis at the desert's secret heart  
all the puzzles i had laid for you  
clues and crumbs to find your way to me  
and you, like ariadne, sought me out

the lengths of yarn that marked your way to me  
tangle now around me, coiling, cold  
chafing raw and sticky red as iron shackles  
dragging me heavy down with every step

stubbornly i grasp them, even as i sink  
my last clinging link to you, my brilliant friend  
my last hope of finding my way out


End file.
